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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28940589">Two And A Half Million Years, For Us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceraes/pseuds/spaceraes'>spaceraes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Feelings Realization, Gen, I can and I will, M/M, POV Sakusa Kiyoomi, Pining Sakusa Kiyoomi, can i even call this a ship fic if they're just pining really hard in the last half, he makes it so easy, he’s also sorta cute, i am dedicated to the cause of clowning Miya Atsumu, idk caring about things is cute, im not sure what to put here tbh, its kinda funny, sorta?, they break onto a roof, you didn’t hear it from me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:34:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28940589</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceraes/pseuds/spaceraes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Tell me something ya do know. About the stars, I mean. Anything.” He said.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Why? Why do you want to know? Why do you care?</i></p><p> </p><p>He doesn’t ask any of those questions.</p><p>Instead, after a moment of silence- long enough to have made it awkward, maybe- he finally replies:</p><p> </p><p>“I know that stars are beautiful even when they’re dying. Even after they’ve died, maybe.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Two And A Half Million Years, For Us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kiyoomi can’t sleep.</p><p>He’s showered, he’s moisturized, he’s picked the nonexistent dirt and dead skin from underneath his fingernails and around his cuticles, the action leaving a stinging sensation just like it does every morning and every night from this same repetitive motion- day in, day out. </p><p>It’s not the place that bothers him. Tokyo is a big, big city, but it’s one that is familiar even in its unfamiliarity. The same modern architecture, the same businesspeople walking around at all hours of the day and night, the same lights and hustle and bustle. But it still isn’t home, it isn’t his bedroom- which, while not especially homey, is the place he keeps the cleanest and feels the most content- comparatively, anyways. These are not his clean sheets, this is not his clean carpet. The sheets make him itch. He tries to ignore it. </p><p>Kiyoomi hadn’t expected to be in a boarding house with the other members of the All-Japan Youth Training Camp. Not when he lives in this city, not when he had explained (in as little detail as possible) his need for space. Apparently, that was taken as “ i refuse to have a roommate,” rather than “i refuse to stay in this place, with its unfamiliar and thus unreliable sanitizing schedule, with these people, some of whom I have seen explicitly not wash their hands before exiting the restroom.”</p><p>At least he wasn’t assigned a roommate. That might have been an actual deal breaker. Maybe.</p><p>He’s closed his eyes, he’s counted sheep, and now he’s pulling on his mask and his jacket and his sneakers and exiting his room. He’s not sleeping like this, so he might as well walk. Or run. Do something.</p><p>Kiyoomi isn’t in the habit of sleepless nights, regardless of what the bags under his eyes might suggest. They take their toll- on his body, his mind, and his volleyball. If he’s not going to sleep, then he’s going to practice. </p><p> </p><p>So he slouches and scuffles his way out of his room and down the hall- though not before stopping to grab a mask. People aren’t exactly around at this time, but it never hurts to be safe. It’s a comfort he can afford himself. </p><p>Kiyoomi stops at the stairs that lead down to the first floor and to the exit- which also happen to be the stairs that lead up, up, up to... the roof, maybe? He stops, not at this question, but at the fact that there is a person- a boy- laying on the stairs that he was about to use to descend into the maze that is Tokyo at- checking the watch on his phone- 1:30 in the morning. Fantastic. A head pops up at the sight of him, breaking Kiyoomi’s thought process with the shock of a yellow that puts even Itachiyama’s somewhat banana-reminiscent uniforms to shame. </p><p>Miya fucking Atsumu. Thorn in the side of humanity. </p><p>Kiyoomi only has a brief moment to question what Miya is doing here, on the steps that countless shoes have probably trampled on in just the past several days. Disgusting. </p><p>“Sakusa! Fancy meetin’ you here. Come here often?” Miya bares his teeth in a wry grin, and it would probably be less annoying if his eyes didn’t already hold a glint of trouble in them. His face would almost seem playful and good natured if Kiyoomi didn’t know exactly what kind of person Miya was underneath, even after only a few days in close proximity. You pick these things up when you’ve been across the court from someone since middle school. </p><p>And isn’t it just his luck that Kiyoomi ran into Miya of all people in this god-forsaken stairwell. </p><p>“I can’t say I do, not that it’s any of your business.”</p><p>“Aw, why ya gotta be like that? I’m bein’ perfectly civil and yet yer as prickly as an urchin. Almost makes me feel like ya don’t love me,” He sticks his bottom lip out and it wobbles with the strain of what Kiyoomi imagines is barely contained laughter.</p><p>The exaggerated, almost comical pout gives way to a sly, close lipped smile far too quickly for Kiyoomi’s liking. There’s something untrustworthy about it, about him. Like staring at a hyena- nothing about his laughter is comforting. Miya leans forward, back arching catlike as he languidly turns and props his elbow onto the step above the one he was laying on, chin resting in his palm. </p><p>“So... what brings you here at this time of night, huh? Can’t sleep without yer handy dandy pack of antibacterial wipes under the pillow?” He snorts, almost imperceptibly, and Kiyoomi levels him with a cold, flat stare. This, however, doesn’t stop his hands from tightening into fists in his pockets. “Don’t look at me that way, man, I’m just playing. It’s called friendly banter, ya may have heard of it.”</p><p>Kiyoomi remains unamused, unblinking, and he watches as Miya slowly seems to deflate in place. His shoulders roll back and he stretches, standing up with his hand placed on the railing of the stairs. </p><p>“Y’ever been up to the roof of this place? Think we’re allowed?” Miya asks, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere. Kiyoomi shrugs.</p><p>“I don’t know. I don’t see why we wouldn’t be.”</p><p>Miya hums and glances up.</p><p>Before Kiyoomi knows it, he’s deftly launching himself off the steps he was standing on and up the first few leading to what is presumably the roof. He looks back, right into Kiyoomi’s eyes, and there’s something that seems almost feral in them. There always is. He’s only ever been used to seeing this boy’s eyes through a net. That dangerous, almost predatory look was something Kiyoomi assumes was specific to his time on the court. Apparently, he was wrong.</p><p>Something in those eyes makes him freeze.</p><p>“You wanna try to break onto the roof? We can race for it.” Miya drawls, the challenge feeling more serious than it should, in spite of his crooked grin and his playfully- or maybe condescendingly- cocked eyebrows. </p><p>“Why would I do that.” Kiyoomi says, trying to take back some control of the situation and of his pulse which has been slowly picking up since Miya stood. </p><p>“Aw, ya coulda’ said if you were scared. I won’t hold it against ya.” He says, eyebrows raising higher and eyes narrowing. </p><p>He knows. He knows what Miya is trying to do, but the clench of Kiyoomi’s jaw and the twitch of his nose is something visible even through the mask, he’s sure of it. This boy knows exactly what he’s doing.</p><p>“I’m not... <i>scared</i>,” Kiyoomi forces out through slightly clenched teeth. </p><p>Miya’s grin is turning slowly but surely into a smirk, now just a hint of teeth showing as his mouth stretches to the side, his cheek dimpling. Kiyoomi hates it. Hates him. </p><p>“Fine.” </p><p>With that, Kiyoomi forcefully relaxes his hands in his pocket and starts ascending the stairs. As he passes Miya, he turns and raises and eyebrow- sees Miya’s face twitch, but it’s gone just as quickly as it came. </p><p>“Well?” Kiyoomi says lowly, taunting. Most wouldn’t pick up on it due to his monotone voice, but he knows anything, it’s that Miya Atsumu is well versed in the art of taunting and being taunted. How could he not be.</p><p>Kiyoomi continues up the stares without more than a glance back at Miya. He knows he’s following, even without looking. When they reach the door at the end of the stairs, Miya pulls out something small. “Is that a bobby pin?” Kiyoomi asks, almost baffled at this boy’s propensity for mischief. Was he going to try to pick the lock? </p><p>“Yeah, what about it? I’ve always wanted to try this.” Miya says, one corner of his mouth drawing up. “All the best guys in movies pick locks, y’know.”</p><p>Kiyoomi closes his eyes, not for the first time asking himself if he’s really willing to get in trouble for a competition that he’s not even sure Miya understands is going on. Then again, he’s already here, and he wouldn’t put it past the other to drag his name into it even if he was the only one to get caught. He sighs. </p><p>“Before that... why not just try opening the door?”</p><p>“Ya really think they’d just leave a door to the <i>roof</i> open when they’re putting up a bunch of high school boys-“ Miya says, rolling his eyes a bit even as he reaches for the door. </p><p>When he turns the knob, it opens.</p><p>There is a not-quite-small amount of satisfaction that courses through Kiyoomi and causes his mouth to twitch. Miya probably notices, even unable to see his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything. Just averts his eyes and opens the door fully, stepping through without preamble.</p><p>Before he knows it, Kiyoomi watches Miya practically throw himself to the ground. He lies spread out, his limbs taking up as much space as possible- not so different from everything else about him at any given time. Kiyoomi continues standing, weighing his options. Sit down and subject himself to further interaction as well as the all too likely possibility of unknown organisms of the microscopic variety littering this roof, or turn back and get no closure, no explanation for his sudden decision to go along with Miya’s whims, and nothing to do for the rest of what will probably be a sleepless night. Neither sounds pleasant. </p><p>Kiyoomi sits down, huddled into himself, taking up as little surface area as he can.</p><p>Miya is looking directly at the sky despite little up above being visible. The only sounds around being the cars from below every so often, and the odd individual or group of individuals stumbling around. Kiyoomi looks at Miya and wonders what he’s doing up, out here at this time of night. He wonders.</p><p>“Did ya know,” Miya starts “that th’ light we see from those little stars up there, from one galaxy or another, is light that’s travelled some two and a half million years t' get to us?”</p><p>Something is expected- a grin, a smile at the very least. But when Kiyoomi looks down at Miya again, his face is blank save for a slight tilt of his head. Contemplative.</p><p>“Y’can see pretty much all of it from my place in Hyogo. ‘S beautiful. When we look up there, we see a Galaxy that existed before people did. A Galaxy tha’ was around when humans were still just monkeys walkin around. And that light is all for us. Neat, ain’t it?” </p><p>“Apes,” Kiyoomi’s voice punches from his throat- unexpected, low, a surprise even to himself.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“We were apes. Not monkeys.” He pauses, and breathes a harsh breath through his nose. “They’re different.”</p><p>Miya snorts, an ugly sound that Kiyoomi hates. Hates so much that he almost wants to hear it again. And again. And again.</p><p>Gross.</p><p>“My bad. Apes. Won’t make tha’ mistake again, promise.”</p><p>“See that you don’t.” Kiyoomi sniffs and looks away, back up to the sparse stars. </p><p>He had known that they were far, and old, and that the light took time to make its way to this little corner of the earth. He had’t known quite how far or how long. He never needed to check, never felt the need to know. Some things deserve to stay beyond him. </p><p>Now he kind of wished he did, if only to prove Miya wrong and tell him that yes, actually, he <i>did</i> know. </p><p>Unfortunately, that’s not the reality he lives in.</p><p>“I didn’t know.”</p><p>Miya smiles now, this one a little smaller than his others, just a quirk of his mouth and a slight squint of his eyes. </p><p>“Tell me something ya do know. About the stars, I mean. Anything.” He said.</p><p>
  <i>Why? Why do you want to know? Why do you care?</i>
</p><p>He doesn’t ask any of those questions.</p><p>Instead, after a moment of silence- long enough to have made it awkward, maybe- he finally replies:</p><p> </p><p>“I know that stars are beautiful even when they’re dying. Even after they’ve died, maybe.”</p><p> </p><p>Kiyoomi’s words hang in the air. They feel a little bit too raw for the moment, too much in an otherwise low stakes conversation. If only he knew what it might have been an implication of. If only he hadn’t opened his mouth. </p><p>Miya just hums in acknowledgement next to him. “Yeah,” he says after a while, “they certainly are.”</p><p>He turns to look at Kiyoomi straight on, right in the face. “You know, my brother and I used to watch the sky all the time. Samu grew out of it I guess, but I’ve yet to do the same. It’s nice knowing that there’s somethin’ up there, I think.”</p><p>He looks away.</p><p>“Sometimes it helps to remember what we’re made of and what we’ll go back to, someday.”</p><p>For the rest of their time there, they just sit and they stare. He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he didn’t. He just sat, and he stared. It could have been minutes or hours, Kiyoomi would never be able to recall. </p><p>But it was... nice, he supposes. </p><p> </p><p>Yeah. Nice. </p><p> </p><p>______________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p> </p><p>Kiyoomi can't sleep. </p><p>This has very recently, within the past two nights, become a more pressing issue since the MSBY Black Jackals decided to take a week long trip to the middle of nowhere near Lake Biwa as a form of team bonding. Something about spending time together in the great outdoors.</p><p>
  <i>“Great outdoors.” Right.</i>
</p><p>Kiyoomi doesn’t have anything against the outdoors. Contrary to popular belief, he actually enjoys it- the air is cleaner in the wilderness, there are less people around to risk contamination, and freshwater is self-cleaning. These are all positives in his book.</p><p>What isn't a positive, what brings about a variety of emotions difficult to quantify as “positive” or “negative” in him, however, is rooming with Miya fucking Atsumu. In a tent. In the middle of nowhere. Every night for a week.</p><p>Atsumu brings about a lot of emotions in Kiyoomi. They had grown somewhat closer over the past year, having joined MSBY and moving into the team apartment complex where he lives in the suite directly beside the man, he really had no choice but to get closer. For all of Atsumu’s less than ideal personality traits, he makes a good neighbor- better than Kiyoomi had expected. However, being a good neighbor who Kiyoomi respected and being a tentmate who Kiyoomi had to see on a more than hourly basis are two very different things. Especially when said tentmate decides to sleep shirtless even in the outdoors. Especially when Kiyoomi has been harboring an ill-advised crush on said tentmate for the better part of the last six months. Possibly for the better part of the last six <i>years</i>. Who’s to say.</p><p>Regardless, the past two nights have tried his patience, among other things. There is no way he makes it out of this full week alive and in one piece.</p><p>Kiyoomi throws his sleeping bag open perhaps a little more violently than he needed to. He steps slowly into his shoes and out of the tent, doing his best not to disturb the inconveniently beautiful, irksome man who sleeps mere feet away from him.</p><p>As he walks closer toward the lake, not far from where they had all set up camp, he allows his anxiety to ease slightly. It’s late and nobody else is around, just him and what seems like acres and acres of reeds and tall grasses that line the water. As he slowly sits on a rock overlooking the water, Kiyoomi hears a twig snap not far behind him. He turns, and is greeted with the sight of the man he sought to escape himself. </p><p>Atsumu is wearing a shirt now, thankfully. He looks a bit worse for wear- mussed hair and a slight drool stain on the side of his mouth. <i>Ew.</i></p><p>“Hey, Omi,” he says, making himself comfortable on the same rock where Kiyoomi rests. “Couldn’t sleep?”</p><p>Kiyoomi closes his eyes and breathes out a soft sigh. “No.”</p><p>Atsumu hums in acknowledgement and something about this moment feels like its happened before, a sense of deja vu overtaking Kiyoomi.</p><p>“Did y’know this place is one of the most well known spots in all the country for stargazing?” </p><p>Kiyoomi is finally able to place why it feels so familiar. <i>Oh.</i></p><p>“... I didn’t know.”</p><p>Atsumu smiles a little crooked, his cheek dimpling. Kiyoomi gets the feeling he recognizes the familiar moment too. He always had a good memory, despite everything.</p><p>“I’ve always wanted t’ come here, actually, but we never really had the time or money to just travel all willy nilly, outside volleyball I guess. Ya’d think growin’ up two hours away would make it easier, but nah.</p><p>’M glad we got to come here with the team. Glad I finally get t’ see it.” Atsumu says, looking up into the blue-black sky full of white glowing specks. </p><p>Kiyoomi looks up too.</p><p>For the next ten, twenty, thirty minutes, they sit there and he listens to Astumu talk about stars and planets and galaxies. He sees the way Atsumu’s face glows in the light of the moon, how his eyes shimmer like the stars he seems to love so much as he murmurs their names and their stories, and the stories he and his brother made up for them growing up.. Kiyoomi can’t help but be enamored.</p><p><i>Ugh,</i> he thinks. <i>I make myself sick.</i></p><p>Atsumu looks at him with an almost unreadable expression. It’s quickly replaced, a smile flowing onto his mouth like liquid light, like the sunrise. </p><p>“Sorry, Omi,” He says n that self deprecating tone that he adopts only when he feels he’s really in the wrong, “I don’t mean to make you listen to me yammerin about th’ universe like that.”</p><p><i>Never apologize</i>, he thinks, and he must say it out loud too by mistake because Atsumu’s eyes widen- not a lot, but enough to make his eyebrows twitch up and enough to make his mouth fall open ever so slightly.</p><p>
  <i>Don’t think about his mouth.</i>
</p><p>“I uh… I guess I won’t, then. Just, y’know, keep that in mind next time i knock over your water bottle… or… whatever.” His voice trails off as he looks away, biting the inside of his cheek.</p><p>They sit in silence for a few moments, maybe seconds, Kiyoomi couldn’t honestly tell the difference right now. Time feels syrupy, slipping by. </p><p>“We should… probably go back. To bed, I mean.” Kiyoomi says, his voice low in the space between the two of them. “I’m feeling tired, now.”</p><p>“Oh! Yeah- yes- sure. Yeah.” Atsumu says, scrambling up quickly. He turns away.</p><p>It’s only a second later when he turns back, shoulders set straight across. He’s clenching and unclenching his fists, Kiyoomi sees his fingers flex in the dull moonlight.  </p><p>He reaches out.</p><p>“Need a hand?” Atsumu asks, voice a little hoarse. Kiyoomi feels like something’s shifted, changed almost imperceptibly but just enough to matter. He feels his own fingers tense, looking up at the hand offered to him. It only takes a minute, however, for his body to move of its own accord.</p><p>“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” He reaches up, and suddenly, they’re touching. His brain screams, alarm bells ringing somewhere in the back of his mind, but the ringing in his ears is louder. When he’s up, he lets go of Atsumu’s hand and curls his own into fists, shoving them into his elbows, gripping his sides in an almost hug, a self-soothing gesture. He nods. </p><p>“Let’s go.” </p><p>He doesn’t see the way that atsumu trails not far at all behind him, the way he doesn’t look at anything but Kiyoomi’s back, his hair, the tips of his ears. He doesn’t see the way his eyes are glowing just like his stars, worlds contained inside them, the light only just beginning its descent to Earth. </p><p>What a beautiful sight it will be, though, when those rays arrive to shine on his face in the night, someday.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading!!! This was my first time writing a fan fiction like. ever. lmao. I'm happy with how it turned out. If you have any feedback feel free to give me some! I'm no writer by any means, but it was nice to get this down and out into the world. </p><p>You can find me on twitter @spaceraestuck which is where i scream and yell about haikyuu and my dear wife Sakusa Kiyoomi. I also draw a lot.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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